View full sizeGoodrich council members listen to the report Wednesday night from Karl Heiser, certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner.

GOODRICH, Michigan -- Not all questions were answered at Wednesday night's Goodrich special meeting, but a certified fraud examiner did present his findings on what residents and officials have had concerns about for months.

Residents filled the council room Wednesday to hear the Haiser's report.

Karl Haiser, certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner hired in November, gave his opinion on who was responsible for paying a bill for an investigation started last April, if a situation with Village Administrator Jakki Sidge's hard drive was handled appropriately and if privacy of village employees was violated.

The concerns started back in February, 2011 when the village council in a 3-2 vote asked Sidge to resign, requesting for her turn over her keys and the hard drive to her computer to be copied.

At the end of the meeting councilman Rick Horton left with the hard drive for the weekend and brought it back to the administration building on Monday, Haiser said.

Then village council president Patricia Wartella later hired Dalman Investigations to do a special investigation on the hard drive.

When a bill for more than $6,000 came in for Dalman, council members questioned if they should be responsible for paying since the council never approved that amount be spent for the investigation, Haiser said.

Haiser said that Wartella - who was recalled in May - and current councilman Doug McAbee authorized the investigation so they would be considered the clients and not the village.

"Review of the facts, interviews that I conducted and conclusions I reached (were done) by the presentation of facts. I wasn’t going to be influenced by rumors ...," Haiser said. "The question is who is the client. Is it the village of Goodrich or was it Mrs. Wartella or Mr. McAbee? In my opinion it wasn’t the village of Goodrich. It’s very simple."

After a closed session the council voted that the village would not pay the bill from Dalman Investigations.

Wartella, however, said Wednesday in an interview with The Flint Journal, that is village's responsibility and as acting council president at the time she had authority to start initiate the investigation.

The council approved to get the information off the hard drive and after Horton left with the hard drive back in February of last year, she wanted to make sure nothing was taken off of it, she said.

"To say that I didn’t have the right or jurisdiction to have Mr. Dalman to do what he had to do to investigate the wrong doing of Mr. Horton after he did what he had to do is ridiculous," Wartella said about council members saying she had to get the money spent for approved ahead of time. "The money wasn’t the issue at the time. It was to get the information that council voted 3-2. ... They gave me that jurisdiction."

When it came to the issue on whether or not Horton did anything wrong by taking the hard drive, Haiser said no, stating that council authorized for the hard drive to be confiscated but it was never specified who should take it.

Horton said he went upstairs to get his coat and was available to take the hard drive, so that's what he did.

Wartella, however, said she felt the investigation was necessary to make sure nothing was missing from the hard drive. She didn't believe Horton had the authority to take the hard drive for three days, she said Wednesday.

The investigation by Dalman Investigation brought about a whole new concern. By Dalman employees getting access to village's computer server, Haiser said the social security numbers of village employees were illegally taken.

Resident Keith Walworth, 47, urged the council to take legal action against Wartella and McAbee.

Walworth was one of 31 employees whose social security number was allegedly taken from the server.

Haiser publicly suggest McAbee resign from the council, which is something he will not do, McAbee said.

"(Haiser) had no right to make that suggestion. He way over stepped his bounds," McAbee said. "I will not resign. ... These people think I had a major role (in the investigation). I didn't."

Council approved a resolution to contact their insurance company and see if the company would pay for LifeLock policies for all 31 people who's social security numbers were not secure.

Nothing was decided Wednesday night if legal action would take place, but Haiser announced that he thought the board should do what they need to protect the resdients' privacy rights.